Microsoft Azure

Hello and welcome to the next GenAI UK Meetup #18. This event brings together engineers, practitioners, builders, and leaders working across cloud-native platforms, open-source ecosystems, Gen AI, Data and Agentic AI. Our meetups are friendly, welcoming, and community-driven; everyone is welcome, whether you’re experienced or just curious. This session will include practitioner talks, demos, Q&A, and time for networking with like-minded peers. Food and refreshments will be provided for in-person events where a host venue is supporting. We are delighted to host this event in **London** on the **10th of March** with [Nearform ](https://nearform.com/)and [Tessl](https://tessl.io/) **Speakers and Sessions:** Speaker: ​Luke Philips-Sheard, Engineering Manager, Vercel Session: Luke will break down GPU performance optimisation and AI sandboxing. Drawing on experience in finance and high-growth environments, he’ll explore how to manage GPU resources, isolate workloads, and prevent performance bottlenecks in real systems. Speaker: ​Jack Foxabbott, Founding Member of Technical Staff, Stealth Startup Session: Jack will dive into Neural Kernel Search and the evolution of custom CUDA for non-standard architectures. A practical look at how low-level optimisation unlocks performance gains that frameworks alone can’t deliver. **Agenda (GMT /UK ):** * 18:00: Welcome and refreshments * 18:30: Introduction * 18:35: Speaker 1 * 19:10: Break * 19:20: Speaker 2 * 19:55: Close and Networking **Get Involved:** We are always keen to hear from: • Speakers — case studies, engineering deep dives, lessons learned, open-source talks • Hosts — organisations able to provide space for future meetups • Sponsors — support with refreshments, marketing, or accessibility If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please get in touch with **[Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)**[ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/)via LinkedIn. You can find our YouTube Channel **[here](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)[.](https://www.youtube.com/@CommunityStackHQ)** This community forms part of the **[Community Stack ecosystem](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)**[ ](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/)and follows the Community Stack [Code of Conduct](https://www.communitystack.io/code-of-conduct) and[ Privacy Policy](https://www.communitystack.io/privacy-policy) to ensure a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees. By registering for this event, you agree to these terms.

Join us on March 10th from **6:00pm** for a Data Streaming meetup hosted by **[Fresha](https://www.fresha.com/)**! 📍**Venue:** **Fresha** The Tower, 207 Old Street London, EC1V 9NR 7th Floor **PLEASE bring your PHOTO ID and REGISTER with your First and Last Name, Email. Thanks!** **DOORS CLOSE AT 7PM FOR SECURITY.** 🗓 **Agenda:** * 6:00pm – 6:30pm: Food/Drinks and Networking * 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Jesús Gómez-Escalonilla Guijarro, Data Engineer @ Fresha * 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Pranam Codur, Senior Solutions Engineer @ Confluent * 7:30pm - 8:00pm: Sreeram Machavaram C, Principal Architect @ Cognizant * 8:00pm - 9:00pm: Q&A Networking 💡**Speaker One:** Jesús Gómez-Escalonilla Guijarro, Data Engineer @ Fresha **Title of Talk:** Optimizing StarRocks Query Performance: Lost in JSON, Found by Northstar **Abstract:** StarRocks is fast, but understanding slow queries at scale is hard when plans are massive JSON. We built Northstar at Fresha to turn plans and execution metrics into a visual view you can reason about quickly. Through production case studies that reflect our real workloads, we'll show the bottlenecks Northstar exposed (scans, joins, skew, modelling) and how it made tuning faster and more systematic. **Bio:** Jesús Gómez-Escalonilla Guijarro is a Data Engineer at Fresha, where he focuses on building scalable and performant analytical data systems. He has been part of Fresha’s data team for several years, first as an Analytics Engineer and now in his current role, helping shape how data is modelled, analysed, and optimised across the organisation. Passionate about making complex systems understandable and efficient, Jesús enjoys tackling performance bottlenecks and sharing learnings with the wider data engineering community. 💡**Speaker Two:** Pranam Codur, Senior Solutions Engineer @ Confluent **Title of Talk:** From Data Mess to Data Streaming Platform **Abstract:** Most organizations want realtime data but are held back by brittle integrations, batch ETL, and siloed warehouses. In this session, we’ll walk through the Confluent Data Streaming Platform (DSP), which is built on Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink®, and a reference architecture you can use to ship governed, reusable real-time data products that power applications, analytics, and AI workloads. Attendees will leave with practical patterns to modernize existing Kafka and batch pipelines while maintaining security, lineage, and compliance. 💡**Speaker Three:** Sreeram Machavaram C, Principal Architect @ Cognizant **Title of Talk:** From "Data Rich and Information Poor" utility To "Event-driven, Real-time intelligent" operations **Abstract:** Utilities are massive and complex. Whether it’s water, gas, or rail, they operate treatment works, pumping stations, compressor sites, signalling systems, and vast networks that span cities and regions. Keeping these services running safely and continuously means collecting and interpreting data from highly distributed sites and their connected networks in real time. This machine data — from PLCs, sensors, third-party devices, and operational systems — reflects the physical world: pumps starting, valves opening, pressure fluctuating, trains moving, gas flows changing. But raw telemetry is noisy, inconsistent, and deeply technical. SCADA and other OT systems are often siloed and reactive. Engineering signals are hard for IT to interpret, leaving organisations unable to combine OT data with IT-based analytics and intelligence in real time. The result: fragmented visibility, alarm fatigue, and reactive decision-making. A Unified Namespace (UNS) and event-driven stream processing provides a solution. Using MQTT to publish operational events, Kafka as the enterprise backbone, and Flink for scalable stream processing, raw telemetry is filtered, contextualized, and transformed into meaningful, business-ready events. The outcome is IT-OT convergence in action — turning reactive, siloed systems into event-driven, real-time intelligent operations Intended to give a high-level approach and architecture around IO-OT convergence using UNS, Event Driven and Stream processing in modern intelligent utilities. **Bio:** Sreeram Machavaram C is hands-on practitioner specialising in utility solutions across IT-OT convergence, real-time data architectures, and stream processing. He works in a team that designs and builds event-driven systems that bridge operational technology (OT) and enterprise IT, enabling utilities to transform raw telemetry into actionable intelligence. \*\*\* If you are interested in hosting/speaking at a meetup, please email community@confluent.io

\***Free with promocode** \- details below Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” ​David Fincher’s 1999 film Fight Club tells us that even those of us whose lives appear successful and desirable tend to lack this significant “why”. We will examine how a crisis of meaning and fractured subjectivity drive the film’s characters to seek identity, authenticity, and meaning through violence and underground ritual. Together, we’ll ask whether Fight Club points to possibilities beyond nihilism, or merely exposes the dangerous seduction of creating meaning in a world that feels empty. ​**Please note that we'll screen film clips only, not the entire film.** ​Inspired by ancient Greek symposia, Reel Philosophers nights help sharpen **critical thinking** through film discussions, gently guided by professional philosophers. ​Philosophy meets art at the [Vorboss](https://vorboss.com/) office, connecting the local business community. ​*Vorboss is built for London, delivering world-class connectivity and tech services that are simple, transparent, and built for the future. We own our network and service end-to-end, and whilst others compromise, we don't: no contractors, no hidden costs, no nonsense. Our mission is to set a new standard for reliability and service in telecoms.* If you’d like to use the **free coworking space** before the event, please fill out the form [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1ec7oyY2OSWnMznzbFBcxAERpNOchDu7nOpPsoIvo7DXXSQ/viewform). ​**Registration closes at 5 pm on 7 March due to building entry requirements**. ​**The Flow** ​9:00 Coworking (registration link above) ​17:30 Doors open: enjoy free drinks and mingle ​18:00 Join discussions led by PFA philosopher Anja Steinbauer and sparked by cinematic vignettes (no full screening) ​19:20 Curtain falls. Credits and reflections ​19:30 Socialising over drinks ​20:00 Doors close, yet conversations tend to wander through the streets and minds long after ​The office space accommodates up to 30 seated guests. Use promocode "Free" if you'd like to book a free place, and arrive promptly to ensure admittance and a seat. Alternatively, pay the optional fee of GBP 10 for guaranteed admittance and a reserved seat (by paying this fee you will also support PFA and enable us to offer more exciting events to the general public). [PFA financial members](https://pfalondon.org/#members) can reserve a seat for free - [e-mail](https://pfalondon.org/#contact) us if you'd like to excercise this option. — φ — λ — φ — Film clubs form part of the Human RenAIssance series of interdisciplinary events in [Fleet Street Quarter](https://www.fleetstreetquarter.co.uk/) and beyond, organised by members of [Philosopfy For All](https://pfalondon.org/), [GTA Future of Work ](https://www.globaltechadvocates.org/community/future-of-work/)and [GTA Data and AI ](https://www.globaltechadvocates.org/community/datatech/)groups. ​If you wish to become an event partner, contact [Helen Rantsevitch](https://www.linkedin.com/in/web3-strategy-startup-founder/). Media Partners: [Philosophy Now](https://philosophynow.org/) and [London Daily](http://ldd.news/).

uSwitch is located on the first floor of the ZPG building at 5 Copper Row, London, SE1 2LH, London (Click on the map for directions) What 3 words location: [https://what3words.com/puts.sudden.else](https://what3words.com/puts.sudden.else) The Clojure dojo is a collaborative way to learn Clojure/ClojureScript through practice. The aim is to learn a little more than before you started. This event is for those new to coding through to more experienced developers. We organise into small groups (2-4) people and write code to solve challenges great and small, chosen by those at the event. We aim to ensure someone in your group has some Clojure experience, so you shouldn't feel lost (well no more than all developers do when Stack Overflow is broken). Example challenges for the coding dojo are listed on this website: http://www.londonclojurians.org/code-dojo/ Various past exercises have been loaded to [https://github.com/ldnclj](https://github.com/ldnclj/lisp1.5/blob/master/src/lisp1/5.clj) # Approximate schedule: 18:40 Doors open and start collecting suggestions 18.45 Pizza should have arrived 19:00 Quick intros and vote on suggestions 19:15 Break out into groups and start practising 20:45 Gather together for a quick show and tell # What should I bring? We organise into small groups, so if you have a laptop with a working Clojure environment please bring it along (there are lots of online Clojure environments, so you can just use your browser too). # How do I get in to the building? At the glass doors press the buzzer to inform the security guard you are here. Say you are here for the event on the first floor. Is there way to talk with the Clojure community? Why yes. The Clojurians Slack channel is full of friendly people who love to try and help. People based in London are often in the #clojure-uk channel. Sign up for a free account to the Clojurians Slack community via http://clojurians.net/ What is Clojure? Clojure is a JVM language that has syntactically similarities to Lisp, full integration with Java and its libraries and focuses on providing a solution to the issue of single machine concurrency. Its small core makes it surprisingly easy for Java developers to pick up and it provides a powerful set of concurrency strategies and data structures designed to make immutable data easy to work with. If you went to Rich Hickey’s LJC talk about creating Clojure you’ll already know this, if not it’s well worth watching the Rich Hickey “Clojure for Java Programmers” video or Stuart Halloway “Radical Simplicity” video .

**\*RSVP** then use this **Collctiv Payment Link>** **[https://pay.collctiv.com/tuesday-badminton-37370](https://pay.collctiv.com/tuesday-badminton-37370) (**full details below) This session is suitable for **Lower Intermediate and above players!**! **SESSION DETAILS** * 4 court venue\*\*. 26 players max. * Feather Shuttles Provided. Bring your own racket * **Time** \- 8\.00pm till 10\.00pm * **Cost** \- from £10 per person \(book early to avoid a booking fee\) * Strict Cancellation, No-Show & Refund Policy! (see below) * **Updates & Notifications -** Make sure to have your meetup notifications on, **Booking & Payment Details (updated 12/01/26)** * **First RSVP,** then **use this [COLLCTIV](https://pay.collctiv.com/tuesday-badminton-37370)\* payment link** **until 2pm Mon** * \*Contributions toward the Collctiv App is optional, untick it! * **[Click Here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMsg6dATGes2pM59YuuzQBXabl882VvvXeDby0Y2usc/edit?usp=sharing)** to see full details regarding Collctiv * * **After 2pm (AutoPay) payments made via Meetup/PayPal** (fees inc), and any unpaid bookings will be withdrawn, but can rebook if a space is available **TERMS & CONDITIONS** * **You must RSVP on MEETUP, and pay as instructed!** * If you plans change and you cannot attend, update your RSVP immediately! * **[Click Here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/12WmILk6X9dwgf_W0Cm6kgswKeW4ovHDTN8TBvN4Gq10/edit?usp=sharing)** to view details for Full Details By RSVPing for this event you confirm you have read and agree to our T&C's **\*\*Venue Details:** * Haberdashers' Askes Hatcham College, Brockley, London, SE4 2ED * Sports Hall is in the playing fields * **Car Park** (when open) - opposite no 33 St Asaph Road. Otherwise, park in the street. * **Pedestrian Entrance -** the gate is opposite no 39 St Asaph Road **Dress Code, Well Being, Conduct & Equal Opportunity:** * Wear suitable clothing and footwear for indoor sporting activity. * Ensure than your jewellery is also kept to a minimal, and avoid wearing large ear rings, chains or bracelets/bangles. * If the above is not suitable, you might not be able to participate within the session. No refund, exchange or credit will be given! * If needed please seek advice from your doctor before playing any sports. * You are responsible for warming up/cooling down stretches to reduce the risk of strains/ injuries. * Play at your own risk as Crossfire Badminton Club will not be held responsible for any injuries incurred. * We welcome players of all backgrounds, and treat everyone equally with respect. This is also expected from our participants. If you fail to do this, you may be asked to leave the session, or even banned from future sessions

**Join us on March 10th for the Stripe London developer meetup. This is an in-person event for anyone building with Stripe. An evening focused on Stripe user experiences, product insights, best practices, and community.** 🍕🍺🎁 **Perks** Food, drink, and SWAG provided! **🎫 Tickets** There is a hard limit for RSVP :) Wait list will be operating on Meetup. **📍Location** The event is hosted at Stripe's London offices near Liverpool St station. **🕚 Rough timings** * 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm: Doors open with refreshments * 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm: Talks and Q&A * 8:00 pm - 8:30 pm: Drinks, food, and networking **📣 Talks** 1\. An Engine for End\-to\-End Payments: Reconciliation\, Idempotency\, and Consistency \- **Patrick Nwakeze, Senior Mobile Engineer at UniTaskr** 2. **Anna Spysz Developer Advocate, Stripe** Don't miss this opportunity to connect with the Stripe community. [Stripe developer code of conduct.](https://stripe.com/legal/developer-code-of-conduct)

This edition of Future Form explores two parts of the modern AI stack. Vercel’s agent infrastructure, including the new Sandbox and what’s on the roadmap. And how to optimise code to run more efficiently on custom CUDA kernels. **Luke Philips-Sheard**, **Engineering Manager,** **Vercel** Luke will break down Vercel’s new Sandbox and how it enables secure, isolated environments for running AI workloads and agent-driven tasks. Drawing on experience in finance and high-growth environments, he’ll explore how sandboxing helps manage untrusted code, contain risk, and safely run agents against real systems. **Jack Foxabbott, Founding Member of Technical Staff, Stealth Startup** Jack will dive into Neural Kernel Search and the evolution of custom CUDA for non-standard architectures. A practical look at how low-level optimisation unlocks performance gains that frameworks alone can’t deliver. If you’re building AI systems that need to run fast, reliably, and at scale, this one’s for you. **Bonus:** pizza, drinks, and practical peer-to-peer AI insights.

**Hybrid Event** * In Person in Nottingham, with pizza, networking and Q&A. * Online via Teams, no pizza, no networking, limited Q&A. * Recording to be published to YouTube (coming soon). **______________________________________________________** **In Person Agenda** 18:00 - Arrive. Networking 18:30 - Guest Speaker Talk 19:30 - Pizza. Networking 20:30 - Event Close **______________________________________________________** **Fabric’s Capacity Management and Throttling Policies — Bridging Theory with Practice** This session explains the theory behind Microsoft Fabric capacity architecture so admins and users can understand how it works. We connect the concepts with the Capacity Metrics App, demonstrate how to monitor and protect capacity, explain throttling in practice, and share best practices. **______________________________________________________** **Venue Website** [https://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/pubs/vat-and-fiddle](https://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/pubs/vat-and-fiddle) **______________________________________________________** **MeetUp Member Resources In GitHub Here:** [https://github.com/EastMidlandsData](https://github.com/EastMidlandsData) Including introduction slides and our **Code of Conduct**. **______________________________________________________**

**Welcome to our Official Members Club Night!** * See our new payment terms, prices & updates below! * **Suitable for Higher Intermediate to Advance players!** Many of our players compete at a Division 1 Level in the local leagues! * **Guests of a suitable standard welcomed (if interested in playing league matches do enquire)** * To maintain the level of the session, it may be necessary to direct a player to one of our other nights at their suitable level! **New Payment Terms, Prices & Updates (from 9/9/25)** * **Make your payment when you RSVP** (bank details below), don't leave it till later! (unless on waiting list) * If you don't complete the above you will be removed from the list/added to waiting list! See T&C's below! * **Members and Guests prices have increased!** (see below) **SESSION DETAILS** **VENUE** \- Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich\, SE22 0NR **TIME** \- 7\.30pm till 10pm **COURTS** \- 4 **SHUTTLES** \- Quality Feather Shuttles **COST** - **Annual Members £10 per session / Non-Members £14** * Pay when you RSVP, or you will be moved to 'Not Going' * Membership (only applicable for Wed sessions) For details regarding membership email - [sandra1.crossfire@gmail.com](mailto:sandra1.crossfire@gmail.com) Please note Membership may not always be available for different reasons! **BOOKING YOUR SPACE** **1 - RSVP & Pay via Bank Transfer to NatWest Account Details below** * **PLEASE MAKE YOUR PAYMENT WHEN YOU RSVP!** If you delay in making your payment, your spot will be removed without notice, and placed in the the waiting list or not attending **PAYMENT DETAILS** * Bank - NatWest * Account Name - Crossfire Badminton Club * Sort Code - 60-24-25 * Account no - 10579109 * Reference - Your Name & Session date * * **Waiting List** \- Be sure to have notifications on from Meetup to know if/when you are allocated a spot\! It is your responsibility to keep update\. Payment will be required promptly to secure your place\! Cancellation & No\-Show policies apply\. * If you take to long to secure your spot, you will be removed from the waiting list, giving other players a chance to book! **\*\*\*\* TERMS & CONDITIONS \*\*\*\*** **RSVP & UPDATING STATUS -** \~ You can only RSVP on this website! A prompt payment will be required unless you're on the waiting list. ( a delay in payment could mean you lose your spot! \~ **You can RSVP until 7pm the latest on Wednesday!** However do note the cancellation policy/times below! \~ If you have **RSVP'd and your plans change, please update/change your RSVP immediately!** So that other players have a chance to book! \~ No rackets are provided **CANCELLATION /NO SHOW POLICY & PENALTY FEE** **This session does not give a refund**, however, if you cancel your RSVP before 48hrs of the session start time, we are happy to transfer your payment to the following Wednesday session upon request! (Contact Sandra) **No Show Penalty**. A £5 penalty will be enforced which is payable before attending a future session. Repeat offenders will not be allowed to attend other sessions! \~ **Waiting List** **\- Please do keep an eye on any updates as you will be automatically added if someone cancels\, and required to make your payment ASAP to secure your place**. Cancellation/ No-Show policies apply! \~ Please understand that a 'No Excuses accepted!' policy will be taken, and understand that purpose of the penalty system is to maintain the value of the session, and allow us to plan accordingly. We thank you for your understanding and support! Toilets will be available, but changing rooms & showers will be closed, so arrive dressed to play **DRESS CODE, WELL-BEING, CONDUCT & EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES:** Please ensure that you wear suitable clothing and footwear for indoor sporting activity. Ensure than your jewellery is also kept to a minimal, and avoid wearing large ear rings, chains or bracelets/bangles. If your footwear and/or clothing is not suitable you might not be able to participate in the session. No refund of transfer of session fees applicable! Your health and safety in important to us, so if needed please seek advice from your doctor before playing any sports. You are also responsible for warming up/cooling down stretches to reduce the risk of strains/ injuries. Please understand that you play at your own risk as Crossfire Badminton Club will not be held responsible for any injuries incurred. We welcome players of all backgrounds, and treat everyone equally with respect. This is also expected from our participants. If you fail to do this, you may be asked to leave the session, or even banned from future sessions Thank you for all your understanding and support CrossFire Badminton Club

Welcome to our March event. We're delighted to welcome [Matt Johnson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhjwork/), CEO, Rayo, and [Dan Keely](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-keeley/), Principal Data Engineer, Rebura. **Matt** talks about hard-won AWS lessons on keeping cloud costs under control - plus a real “oops” story of how one small mistake can blow up your bill (and how to stop it happening again). **Dan** talks shares how hardware-style production thinking makes your data platforms more reliable, maintainable, and cheaper to run A big thank you to our sponsors [The Scale Factory](https://rebrand.ly/scalefactory) and [Cloudscaler](https://rebrand.ly/cloudscaler)! **Programme:** **18:00:** Arrival, registration **18:15:** Talks start **20:00:** Networking with food and a drink provided by the generosity of our sponsors. **Talk 1:** ***When things go wrong: Managing cost in the cloud with Matt Johnson.*** There are lots of sessions that talk about the theory of cost management and tooling available on AWS, but far less look at the real world challenges of using them in production, as well as the rough edges they have - not to mention what happens when things go wrong! In this session Matt will cover some of the hard lessons learned from working with AWS over the last 14 years, with a real-world example of how a simple mistake can cause problems, and how to avoid them in future. The presentation is aimed at both those new to AWS and to veterans of the platform, and also includes practical guidance on how to improve your cost management on AWS. Matt has been using AWS since 2011, including 8.5 years at AWS in the public sector tech org. He has presented at 6 separate re:Invents and dozens of other events, covering a wide range of topics. Now as CEO of Rayo, Matt continues to help customers deliver mission outcomes using cloud technology. **Talk 2:** ***Predictable Designs in Data Engineering on AWS with Dan Keeley.*** What if we treated data engineering systems the way world-class hardware teams treat products headed for mass production? John Teel (Texas Instruments) has spent years taking complex hardware from prototype to dependable, high-quality production at scale. In this talk, Dan borrows those “production-grade” principles - predictability, repeatability, and ruthless attention to failure modes, and translates them into practical patterns for building data platforms on AWS. This is less about any single AWS service and more about building data systems that behave consistently, even as requirements, volumes, and teams change. **What you’ll learn:** Attendees will leave with practical, reusable approaches they can apply immediately: * How to make systems maintainable * How to keep costs efficient without heroics * How to borrow best practices across engineering disciplines Dan is a community driven data engineer and now c-level team builder working with a wide range of Data technologies in the cloud. He is on the steering group for the biggest tech conference in London - BigDataLDN. He has won a number of awards, including being named in the top 50 data leaders and influencers in the UK. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- If you are interested in speaking at one of our events please check out our [call for papers here](https://awsuguk.org/call-for-papers/). We are advocates for greater inclusion & diversity in UK Tech and are especially keen to receive talk submissions from people in underrepresented groups. If you are interested in speaking at a future meetup but would like to discuss what to expect or need assistance please contact our Inclusion & Diversity Lead Natalie Gray - graynataliej@gmail.com or DM her [@natjgray](https://twitter.com/natjgray) Check out our [website](https://awsuguk.org) for more information about our community. Remember to follow us [@AWSUserGroupUK](https://twitter.com/AWSUserGroupUK) and on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aws-ug-uk) for the latest updates and you can find videos of our past meetups on [YouTube](http://bit.ly/2dZnvEE). If you want to chat with other members, join our [Community Discord Server](https://discord.gg/yMa8Rvtsmy).

https://www.kingscrossspeakers.com/ Are you ready to unlock your full potential in public speaking and leadership? Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your journey, our Toastmasters club offers a supportive and fun environment to grow your skills, gain confidence, and connect with like-minded individuals. **Why Join Us?** * **Practice Makes Perfect:** Gain hands-on experience by delivering speeches, participating in impromptu speaking exercises, and taking on leadership roles. * **Constructive Feedback:** Receive valuable, supportive feedback from peers to help you improve and thrive. * **Build Connections:** Network with a diverse group of people who share your passion for growth and communication. * **Flexible Learning:** Set your own pace while following Toastmasters' proven educational pathways tailored to your goals. **What Is Toastmasters?** Toastmasters International is a global organization dedicated to helping individuals improve their public speaking, communication, and leadership skills. Through a proven program and a vibrant community, you'll gain practical experience and confidence to excel in both personal and professional settings. **Who Should Join?** Our group welcomes anyone looking to sharpen their speaking and leadership skills in a warm, encouraging, and professional atmosphere. Whether you're preparing for a big presentation, seeking career advancement, or simply looking to improve your confidence, we’re here to help you succeed! **What to Expect at Our Meetings** * Engaging and interactive sessions with prepared speeches, impromptu speaking challenges, and constructive evaluations. * Opportunities to take on various roles that enhance different skills, from time management to meeting facilitation. * A friendly and supportive community that celebrates every success, big or small. Join us today and take the first step toward becoming the confident, skilled communicator and leader you've always wanted to be!

Hello folks! The next Ansible meetup is scheduled for **Thursday 12th March**. **Location** Metro Bank have kindly offered us use of their offices at 1 Southampton Row, London WC1B 5HA, short walk from Holborn Tube. The entrance is just down from the bank itself on Southampton row. Facing the Metrobank branch with Sainsburys behind you, head to the right past the bank and its on your left about 25mtrs. **As always, please bring photo ID.** **Agenda** Speaker: Gregor Berginc - Xlabs CEO Session Title: Ansible Beyond the YAML: Understanding Automation as a Supply Chain Summary: This talk explores what really runs during an Ansible execution beyond playbooks and roles. We’ll look at the hidden layers of the automation supply chain and why understanding them matters as automation scales. The goal is to share a mental model that helps practitioners move fast while understanding what truly runs in production. **Lightning Talks & Discussion** We will have lightning talks, and **accepting talks and discussions on the day**, so bring your laptop and slides/Playbooks or just start a discussion. We are looking for a for 5-15 minute lightning talks. Slides and demo optional, we are here for the discussion. We've love for you to [share your Ansible story](https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-london-meetup/issues/new?template=submit-a-talk.md). **Refreshments & Pizza** Besides the talks, we'll have the obligatory refreshments and pizza. So come along, mingle with fellow Ansiblings, and hopefully learn something interesting from the experiences shared. **Talks wanted!** We are looking for talks (5-20 minutes) for this, and future meetups. If you have something you'd like to talk about at a future meetup, submit your talk via the [London GitHub Repo](https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-london-meetup/issues/new/choose). Here's a list of topics people would like to hear about – can you give a future talk on any of these [popular requests](https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-london-meetup/issues/37)? We look forward to seeing you on Thursday 12th March.

It's a ClickHouse Observability Meetup at SRE Days London! We've joined forces with the SRE Days team to host an evening meetup at their stunning venue. Join us for a few deep-dive talks, some food, and beverages. In fact, we are so excited that we have a discount if you want to attend the entirety of the event. Just head on over to https://luma.com/sreday-2026-london-q1 and use the code CLICK80 for a massive discount. Looking forward to seeing you there! Agenda: 5:30 - Arrival 6:00 - Uncovered: The Hard Truth About OpenTelemetry's Vendor Neutrality - Adriana Villela 6:30 - Observability Updates in ClickHouse - Dale McDiarmid 7:00 - How we built an SRE Agent with Clickhouse and eBPF - Chris Battarbee 7:30 - Running Grafana at Scale - Rory Crispin

Hello and welcome to our joint **Cloud Platform Engineering London x Platform Engineering Leaders x Data & AI Leaders** meetup. This special crossover event brings together platform engineers, data and AI leaders, architects, SREs, and technology executives exploring how agentic AI systems intersect with modern platform engineering in regulated financial services environments. We are delighted to host this event at Lloyd's Banking Group in London. **Speakers & Sessions:** Panel: Agentic AI in the Enterprise Speakers: * Joseph Reeve, Growth, ElevenLabs * Chris Parsonson, CEO, Solve Intelligence * Joanna Crown, Director of Data, Moonpig * Sultan AI Awar, Solutions Architect (Digital Natives) at Databricks * Moderator: Ethan Sumner, Co-Founder & CEO at Community Stack Session: Agentic AI in Practice: How LBG is delivering scalable business value through AI Description: This session highlights LBG’s enterprise approach to scale Agentic AI, showing how the Group has built a scalable and safe foundation for Agentic AI through investments in data & AI platforms, governance frameworks, reusable agentic patterns, and AI upskilling for colleagues. Speakers: * Astitva Karunesh - AI Business Lead, AI CoE, Lloyds Banking Group * Lara Vomfell - Senior Data & AI Scientist, AI CoE, Lloyds Banking Group **Agenda:** 18:00 — Arrival and refreshments 18:30 — Welcome and introduction — Ethan Sumner 18:35 — Agentic AI in Practice - LBG 19:10 — Break 19:20 — Agentic AI in the Enterprise 20:00 — Close and networking We are always keen to hear from: • Speakers • Hosts • Sponsors If you would like to speak, sponsor, or host a future event, please reach out to [Ethan Sumner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethansumner404/) via LinkedIn. These communities form part of the [Community Stack](https://www.meetup.com/pro/generative-ai-uk-community/) ecosystem and follow the [Community Stack Code of Conduct](https://www.communitystack.io/code-of-conduct) and [Privacy Policy,](https://www.communitystack.io/privacy-policy) ensuring a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all attendees.

We will show a variety of methods for building agents that run in Microsoft Foundry. This covers the different types of agents: Prompt, Multi, and Hosted, as well as the development lifecycle using evals and traces.

The global Azure community is coming together again, and Columbus is officially on the map. On **Saturday, April 18, 2026**, the Azure Columbus Meetup is hosting our local edition of Global Azure 2026. This is a free, community-driven event packed with learning, networking, and all things Microsoft Azure. Whether you’re building modern cloud-native apps, experimenting with AI agents, deploying containers, automating infrastructure, or just beginning your Azure journey, this event is for you! **What to Expect** * Engaging technical sessions * Real-world Azure architecture & cloud-native patterns * AI, agents, automation, and modern DevOps * Food and drinks (because learning burns calories) * Time to connect with fellow engineers, architects, and cloud enthusiasts We’re lining up a strong set of speakers from the local and regional Azure community. Speaker announcements coming soon! **Who Should Attend?** * Software engineers (any language, any stack) * Cloud architects * DevOps engineers * Data professionals * AI explorers * Platform builders * Anyone who loves solving hard problems with great tools If you build, deploy, automate, scale, monitor, or optimize in Azure, you’ll feel right at home. **Why Global Azure?** Global Azure is a worldwide community event where Azure user groups host learning sessions on the same day across the globe. It’s grassroots. It’s technical. It’s practical. And it’s powered by people who genuinely love sharing what they’ve learned. And yes, it’s free to attend!

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 **Abstract** TBD **YouTube Link** TBA

Discover Kiro, AWS’s innovative development environment that adapts to your workflow. Whether you prefer specification-driven development or a more intuitive, vibe-based approach, Kiro empowers you to build applications your way. In this session, speakers will explore Kiro’s core functionality and its evolution through re:Invent 2025, along with demonstrations of prompts used to create APIs, hooks, and steering documents. In the latter part of the session, watch as we build a complete example from scratch, showcasing Kiro’s agentic AI workflow in action for spec-driven development and vibe coding. What You'll Learn - Core Kiro concepts and development philosophy Feature evolution: pre and post re:Invent 2025 Practical examples: API creation, hooks, and steering docs Live coding demonstration with real-time problem solving Who Should Attend - Developers, solutions architects, and technical leaders interested in modern AWS development tools and AI-assisted coding workflows. **Speakers Bio:** Matthew Jorat: Matthew Jorat is a Customer Solutions Manager at AWS with nearly three decades of expertise in AI, cloud transformation, migration, modernization, IT, technology, and business. His career spans infrastructure engineer, solutions architect, security auditor, customer success director, support and services director, and operations officer. He was an early adopter of AWS services as a customer, and his current role at AWS uniquely blends his technical and business skills as he partners with executive teams to translate strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes through cloud adoption, AI implementation, and operational excellence. Matt leads end-to-end AI initiatives for enterprise customers, identifying high-impact use cases and maintaining relentless focus on measurable ROI. He holds eight AWS certifications and serves as Adjunct Professor at Franklin University teaching cloud computing and AWS architecture. His expertise encompasses GenAI, agentic AI systems, migration, modernization, and optimization strategies that drive transformation at scale. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjorat/) Girish Bhatia: Girish Bhatia is a seasoned technology delivery leader with deep expertise in cross-domain program management. He holds multiple AWS certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified Developer – Associate, and AWS Generative AI Practitioner, and is also an AWS Community Builder. Girish brings over two decades of experience in the information technology industry. Throughout his career, Girish has led major technology-driven business transformation from modernizing on-premises applications to driving large-scale cloud migrations. His work includes API-based integration platforms, data-center and mainframe modernization, and enterprise cloud adoption initiatives. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Girish works at a tech-forward fintech company. He is passionate about AWS serverless architectures, Generative AI and emerging cloud technologies. An avid learner and builder, he continues to explore and apply the latest innovations in AWS to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/[https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/girishbhatia/) **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/ **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8 Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Drake Lundstrom is presenting: Code Anywhere by Talking to your Phone Abstract: Have you heard the trend of people deploying code anywhere from checkout lines to doctors' offices? In this talk, you will learn how to talk to your phone and have an app on Azure to show your friend 5 minutes later. The basic DevOps tools you already know, plus a little bit of AI magic, are all you need! If you want to follow along, the demo will be in Azure with GitHub Actions and GitHub Copilot, and you can have it set up on your phone by the end of the session. Just come in with an Azure account and a GitHub repo. Join us for pizza, drinks, and networking @ Improving's office. Doors open at 5:45.

So this month's prompt is more general. I think we can all agree that we are living in "unique" times that require coping skills. I think that one role and/or purpose of philosophy is to help us deal with our daily lives and our "unique" times. So, let's share our feelings and thoughts about which philosopher/philosophy we turn to in order to deal with our crazy events. Who/what helps you stay focused in your daily life and helps you sleep at night. I find that Stoicism with a little philosophical pessimism mixed in goes a long way in helping me deal with what I see as very destructive, fearful and mean spirited public policies at both the state and federal levels. Hope to see you on March 28th!